Originally Posted by 33girl (Post 2319927)

Unfortunately, going outside of the membership to fill positions and create programs is depressingly common nowadays. This happens to be a very fraught and very extreme case.

I also think they would have been better served by hiring someone older. If the racism within the fraternity as a whole really is so prevalent as to create this position, they need someone who will be able to make a dent with alumni as well.

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby (Post 2319933)

There are actually two issues, here, in internal vs. external and white guy vs. not white guy, and in both cases, it seems the former may have more credibility with members, but the optics of it may be worse for outside observers.

Which is to say...there are down sides to any combination...at least from the perspectives that can be espoused by people with no actual insight into the candidates and hiring process (i.e. us).

White guy member: they aren't really interested in change
Non-white guy member: they are tokenizing and putting the responsibility for diversity on their non-white members.
White guy non-member: they aren't even interested in diverse hiring
Non-white guy non-member: magical negro

Ultimately, I hope they chose the person who will affect the most change, and that it works out well for both SAE and Ms. Canty.

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle (Post 2319934)

I debated about posting this at all, as I was pretty sure that there would be those who would nitpick and be unhappy, no matter what SAE did.

Originally Posted by Munchkin03 (Post 2319941)

I don't know if they "exhausted every avenue," but I have several friends in student affairs who are active SAE alumni. I can ask if they even were interested (most are leaning towards the deanery track).